Looking back on Advent

I can hardly believe that we have reached the end of the advent season.  We have truly been blessed this month as we have anticipated the celebration of Christ's birth as a family.  The advent calendar has given us purpose to our meal times and family together times.  It has helped us be intentional about remembering others and sharing the story of Christmas. 

My favorite activites from the last month:
*Christmas at the Farm - I love watching my boys experience the story first hand.  Manasseh has begged several times each week to go back. 
*Making Christmas ornaments.  The boys get so excited about art.  It is fun to help them complete projects.
*Collecting money and sending it to Heifer International. What a joy to work toward a goal as a family and bless other families around the world!
* Making presents for friends was a lot of fun too, the boys loved coloring wooden cars for some of their friends.  Their friends were blessed by them.  In fact, one friend added colors to his car and named it his "teamwork" car because Cassius had started it for him.
* The boys have loved every excuse to play with the nativity set and act out the Christ story. 

I am already looking forward to advent next year.  We have started talking about what activities we might add, and what we might change.  I urge you to begin considering practicing advent with your family next year.

Did you practice advent this year?  What are your favorite advent activities?

Advent Day 16

It's another "Candle Sunday".  This week our theme is "joy".  We talked about joy being like happiness.  They are similar because joy is actively choosing to recognize our contentment because of God's gifts in our life.  We talked about the gift of Jesus and sang "Joy to the World".  

We lit the candles together and remembered what each of the purple candles on our wreath stands for.  The boys prayed thanks to God for the joy that we have and for giving us Jesus.  To close our devotion time at the dinner table, they each got to use permanent markers (with very close supervision) to color an ornament that says "joy" on it.  They later put pipe cleaners through the small holes at the top of their ornaments and hung them pridefully on the tree!

Thank you God, that even in times of sorrow, you are our joy.  Your joy is my strength and when I have fear and doubt myself, I can rely on that strength to accomplish my daily tasks.  Amen.

Advent Day 11

Okay, I'm out of order.  It's been a busy few days.  

Tonight for advent we scheduled Christmas Caroling.  Then we had a flat tire that ended up keeping the boys and I away from home until dinner time.  That meant late dinner, and late bed time.  We decided to change our project (and we are thankful that our boys can't read yet).

We chose to make baby Jesus out of play dough!  The boys LOVED the project.  We had fun talking about what Jesus looked like (our babies have mustaches).  Here is a quick clip from our family time.

Finding Peace through Advent

Have you noticed that we tend to fast forward through our holidays?  We try and fill our time with all of the great festivities and busy ourselves with shopping.  Christmas time is frequently anything but peaceful.

This week, as we lit our advent candle, we talked about peace.  Peace is often a struggle - I like fast paced living.  I like the rush of adventure.  I fret about things like "am I doing enough to teach my boys" and "what should I be doing to make my home a healthier, happier place".  While these are great things to consider - I sometimes forget to allow myself to experience the peace of God.

This month, as we celebrate advent, Randy and I have set out family activities that help us focus on the season of Christmas.  We have something every day that points us to the anticipation of the coming of Christ.  The change of our change of focus, the other concerns are less.

My lesson: When Christ is my focus, my problems fade.

How has advent changed your family life?

Advent Day 5

Oh how beautiful the lights of Christmas!

Lights on one of the pedestrian bridges downtown.

It's hard not to love the breathy "WOW"s of my boys as we drive through the neighborhoods and see all of the decorated houses.  Our advent activity was driving around town to look at the lights.  I freely admit that I was hoping they would also fall asleep on the drive (they did not).

As we looked at the lights, we were reminded that Christ is the light of the world.  Thank you for the gifts of hope and light.

Advent Day 4

On the 4th day we set up the nativity scene under our Christmas tree.  The boys were really excited about taking it out.  Manasseh immediately set to work putting it together exactly how he thought it should look and was incredibly frustrated that his brothers wanted to play with it as well.

We also finished decorating our tree during this time.

Surprise, at the bottom of the ornaments was a second nativity.  Manasseh chose to combine the two for an interesting, festive look.

Our Advent Calendar

It's finished!  We've set out our plans for the next month's activities as we anticipate the coming of Christ!  Are you celebrating advent?  Are you interested in it?  Here are our family activities:

1. Christmas on the Farm
2. Decorate Christmas Tree (Sunday #1)
3. Make Paper Chains
4. Set up Nativity
5. Drive around and look at Christmas Lights
6. Santa Clause Day, decorate and hang stockings
7. Make Christmas Ornaments, Open Stocking gifts
8. Make Christmas Cookies
9. Give Cookies to a friend (Sunday #2)
10. Read a Christmas book at bed time.
11. Make a Play Dough Baby Jesus
12. Hot Chocolate for dinner!
13. Send Money to Heifer International
14. Sleep Over with a friend
15. Board Game Night
16. Christmas Movie and Popcorn (Sunday #3)
17. Play with Nativity Set
18. Decorate Wrapping Paper
19. Rootbeer Floats
20. Sing Christmas Songs Together
21. Make a Present for a Friend
22. Hike or Sled (weather depending)
23. Christmas Treasure Hunt (Sunday #4)
24. Christmas Eve Service, Light Christ Candle, Bake a Birthday Cake
25. Christmas Day, Open Presents

Thank you What's in the Bible for helping us prepare our family with the new Everyday Emmanuel book and many fantastic blogs that gave us ideas to fill in the blanks for our family!